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March 19, 2013
Over at The New Republic, my old pal David Greenberg reviews Martin Duberman's new biography of Howard Zinn. Here is a taste:
Duberman is exceedingly gracious toward Zinn, praising his warm heart, his honorable intentions, his noble commitments. One could almost miss the damning portrait of Zinn’s thinking that ultimately emerges. But damning it is: just as his thoughts on scholarship appear jejune, so Zinn himself—his measure taken in full—comes across as a lazy, conventional theorist, with an undeveloped political philosophy.
If you retain any fondness for Zinn, please read this essay. Taking on John Silber may be a noble endeavor, but it does not excuse bad scholarship.